Final kites to soar away and complete national project
20/07/2006
The final release of red kites by the Northern Kites project will complete a 17-year re-introduction of the birds in Britain and will also reveal a North East secret.
As the final birds fly from the seemingly unlikely venue of a sewage treatment works the full story of the remarkable success of the north east regional Northern Kites project can be told.
A national project to re-introduce the magnificent birds - with a wingspan of more than five feet - began in the Chiltern Hills and the Black Isle in Scotland in 1989. Northern Kites is the final phase of the national project.
Since it began more than 600 birds have been released around Britain - including the 94 birds set free in Gateshead’s Derwent Valley since July 2004 – the final pieces in the national environmental jigsaw.
Birds are now widely re-established and flying and breeding nationwide for the first time in almost 200 years.
The last release of young birds on Tuesday 25 July will also fittingly mark the retirement of one of the nations’ ‘wise owls’ of environmental stewardship.
The kites will be released by Sir Fred Holliday and his wife, Lady Philippa. It will be Sir Fred’s final public duty before stepping down after 13 years as Chairman of Northumbrian Water.
And the final pair of kites will be proudly named Sir Fred and Lady Phil!
Northumbrian Water is one of the principal partners of the regional Northern Kites project which is managed by the RSPB and English Nature, working in partnership with Gateshead Council, Northumbrian Water, The National Trust and Foresty Commission, with additional funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund and SITA Trust.
Northumbrian Water has provided a hitherto secret and secure location for many of the birds to be reared before release. Five camouflage pens were built at its Lockhaugh sewage treatment works near Rowlands Gill in the Derwent Valley.
Reporters and photographers are invited to cover the final release from 10am on Tuesday 25 July at the treatment works. Those wishing to attend must contact Communications and PR Manager Alistair Baker or Communications Adviser Joanne Dye on 0191-301-6851 for authoristation and directions.
Volunteers from the water company have helped with many aspects of the project including building the pens and providing a body guard for the birds. Such was the site safety that a pair of the birds released in 2004 returned this year to nest in trees above the pen ‘homes’ where their North East adventure began having been brought to the region as chicks from nests in the Chilterns.
Sadly, despite two attempts to rebuild the nest after gale damage, this pair failed to rear young
but elsewhere in the region other birds bred successfully.
Sir Fred, said: “Philippa and I are honoured to play such an historic role in the red kite story. A sewage treatment works might seem a strange place for this to happen but really it isn’t. The treatment works uses bacteria to digest the waste and is a vital process at the base of a living chain which leads to the kites soaring above.”
Keith Bowey, Northern Kites project manager who will supervise the final release, said: “Our Northumbrian Water partnership is an exemplar for the project which has delivered remarkable successes.
“Northern Kites is recognised as a national project leader and its success is down to everyone in the region who has taken these magnificent kites into their hearts. The birds are also now a tourist attraction admired by visitors and benefiting the regional economy.”
Northern Kites is a world first in successfully reintroducing red kites so close to a major urban area. All the other reintroduction sites are in rural areas - the Chilterns, the Black Isle in Scotland, Rockingham in Northamptonshire, Argaty in Stirlingshire, Dumfries and Galloway and the Harewood Estate in Yorkshire.
SIR FRED’S ENVIRONMENTAL CREDENTIALS INCLUDE:
0 Chairman of Northumbrian Water – the biggest environment company in the North East.
0 Chairman of the Nature Conservancy Council when the Wildlife and Countryside Act -which protected bats, badgers and otters and other species - was introduced.
0 Past President of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Freshwater Biological Association (FBA).
0 Marine scientific studies after graduation in life sciences.
0 Specialist at sea for the Scottish Fisheries Protection Service.
0 While working as a university lecturer he developed an electronic tag to measure heart and tail beats of fish underwater.
The Holliday Coat of Arms, conferred with his Knighthood in 1990, includes a badger, a bat, a fish and orchard trees and his family moto is: ‘Fac Statim’ which means ‘do it now’.
KITE FACTS
0 The Northern Kites project has touched the lives of thousands of people in north east England and now involves 70 schools (who have ‘adopted’ a kite) and about 80 local volunteers who are involved in every aspect of the project.
0 Visitors from as far away as Japan and the USA have visited the Derwent Valley to see kites and, so far this summer, more than 7,000 people have watched kites from a special viewpoint at the Nine Arches in the Derwent Walk Country Park.
0 Red kites are carrion and feed mainly on dead creatures and worms. They do not ordinarily hunt for live food like other birds of prey.
0 Red kites are a large bird of prey, with a wingspan of almost 2m (over 51/2ft) Kites are one of the most beautiful birds of prey in Europe and are famed for their stunning rusty-red plumage, forked tail and long elegant wings. They became extinct in the north of England during the early 1800s.
0 In the UK, red kites used to be widespread and common, but human persecution led to their extinction in England and Scotland by 1870 and 1890 respectively. Only a few pairs survived in central Wales at the beginning of the 20th century but, because of protection, this population has gradually increased to about 350 pairs.
0 Evidence of the former presence of red kites in Northern England includes historical records of local names – ‘swallow-tailed falcon’ and ‘Glead’ or ‘Glede’ (from the Anglo-saxon word for ‘to glide’). Several North East place names also hint at the past presence of the birds including Gleed Hill, Gled Law and Gledscleugh.
For further information contact Alistair Baker, Northumbrian Water Communications and PR Manager or Joanne Dye, Communications Adviser on 0191-301-6851 or (mobile) 07711-793-493
And David Hirst, RSPB Northern England Region 0191-233-4321 or (mobile) 07885-834889